


Strangeness and Charm

by MxMearcstapa



Series: F!Dimileth Week 2020 [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dimileth Week (Fire Emblem), Dimileth Week 2020, F/M, Fluff, Pre-Tragedy of Duscur (Fire Emblem), Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Young Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Young Love, Young My Unit | Byleth, anyway, by which I actually mean this was half-beta'd and then my beta was unavailable, childhood AU, dimileth, no beta we die like Glenn, so Glenn is like a ghost maybe?, young Dimileth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26975530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MxMearcstapa/pseuds/MxMearcstapa
Summary: Dimitri shook his head. It was a Prince’s duty to maintain a civil and cordial manner at all times. No matter how rude or difficult his conversation partner was.Dimitri smiled at her the way he had been taught to do. “I want to say hello.”“So you have then,” she said, her attention drifting back to the horizon.Dimitri opened his mouth to say something rather un-princely, but Jeralt’s approach cut him off.In which the 11-year-old Prince of Faerghus meets the 14-year-old Ashen Demon at a festival in Faerghus, and shenanigans ensue.For Dimileth Week 2020! Day 1: Childhood AU
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/My Unit | Byleth
Series: F!Dimileth Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1968583
Comments: 10
Kudos: 113





	Strangeness and Charm

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to issue a formal apology for beating up Sylvain so much. He doesn't deserve it, but he should not touch girls without their permission.

Dimitri had never seen anyone like her.

He had of course seen a girl before—Ingrid, one of his best friends, was a girl. He had definitely seen mercenaries before—his father hired them often to protect important caravans and the like. And he had seen someone of her youth assigned to important duties—only earlier this year, Glenn had been knighted to the Royal Guard and posted as Dimitri’s personal guardian.

But he had never seen a girl so young look so _serious_ , following acclaimed mercenary Jeralt the Bladebreaker around like she was a mercenary in miniature.

It was almost the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus Founding Day, and his father had hired Jeralt’s Mercenaries to protect the incoming merchants and their goods from the dangers of the Faerghus wilds, including prowling red wolves and occasional band of thieves. With all the people and products delivered, the mercenaries had returned from the field. Dimitri had expected they would move on, but instead they helped with the setup, smiling and laughing like they were part of the celebration instead of part of the work. All except the girl with the teal hair. She stood alone, at attention, at the edge of the group, almost like she was looking out. Dimitri could not imagine for what.

“I dare you to talk to her,” Sylvain said, because Ingrid would not let him do so.

Dimitri did not particularly want to—something about the girl’s eyes gave him the creeps, and he was due for a lesson with Gustave soon—but he was Crown Prince of Faerghus, and he was not going to back down from a dare, especially not in front of his friends.

Fists balled, Dimitri walked over to her. She gave no signal that she acknowledged his approach.

“Um, hello,” he said.

She looked at him pointedly, sending a shiver down his spine, and then past his head without a word. Uncertainly, Dimitri looked back towards his friends. Sylvain gave him a wide smile and a thumbs up. Ingrid nodded encouragingly, and Felix crossed his arms, eyebrows raised, while Glenn snickered into his fist.

A heated wave of embarrassment tore through Dimitri. He was not going to be made a fool of by this _girl_.

He cleared his throat. “I said, ‘hello.’”

“I heard you,” she replied. Her voice was cool like a summer breeze, but her tone was cold like ice. Had Dimitri not already been heated by his embarrassment, her affect would have chilled him. Instead, he felt another streak of heat from irritation.

“If you heard me, why didn’t you respond?” he huffed.

“What do you want?” she asked, her voice again clear of emotion. Her face was equally blank.

_Creepy_.

Dimitri shook his head. It was a Prince’s duty to maintain a civil and cordial manner at all times. No matter how rude or difficult his conversation partner was.

Dimitri smiled at her the way he had been taught to do. “I want to say hello.”

“So you have then,” she said, her attention drifting back to the horizon.

Dimitri opened his mouth to say something rather unprincely, but Jeralt’s approach cut him off.

“Ah,” he said, clapping the girl on the shoulder. She did not even flinch. “I see you’ve met Prince Dimitri.”

Her violet eyes widened a fraction and slid back to Dimitri’s blue ones.

“That’s good, since you’ll be guarding him for our duration here.”

Both his and the girl’s attention snapped to Jeralt. He looked between them with a smile.

“King Lambert extended our contract—after the festival, we’ll be seeing the travelers home. Don’t be fooled by her age, Your Highness. My Byleth is the best we’ve got. She’ll keep you safe.”

_Safe from what?_ Dimitri wanted to ask, but his jaw had stopped cooperating with his brain. He had a knight. He didn’t need another guardian, temporary or otherwise, and especially not someone so _rude_.

Though, if he were being fair, he supposed Glenn was not always the kindest, nor was Felix, and they were his friends. And furthermore, he had been raised better than to protest something being done for his benefit, regardless of his personal feelings about it. Especially coming from someone as renowned as Jeralt the Bladebreaker.

Dimitri looked at the girl again. _Byleth_. He returned his gaze to Jeralt.

“Thank you, sir,” he said, with as much solemnity as he could muster. “I look forward to working with her.”

* * *

Of course, he was _not_ looking forward to working with her. But neither Byleth nor Jeralt needed to know that. And if all her presence entailed was standing silently behind him with that enigmatic expression for the duration of the festivities, then that was tolerable enough.

She followed him back to where his friends were standing. The range of emotions on their faces was clear—surprise, concern, annoyance—or perhaps it only seemed so after Byleth’s lack of expression. He was relieved that the manners that had been instilled in them overruled their curiosity—and then Felix spat, “What’s _she_ doing here?”

Dimitri sighed. He cleared his throat again and chose his words carefully.

“Sir Jeralt has seen fit to assign me one of his mercenaries personally.”

“What, like a guard?” Felix asked.

Dimitri nodded. The girl cocked her head slightly.

Glenn stepped forward, speaking as he gestured to himself, “The Prince already has a guard—me.”

“And now he has two,” she replied evenly, staring directly into Glenn’s eyes. Glenn scowled, hand drifting to his sword. Byleth mirrored the gesture. Several tense moments passed. Dimitri looked nervously between them, impressed that Glenn was able to so steadfastly hold her unnerving look. He was not thrilled about Byleth trailing them either, but he did not want a fight to break out.

“Come now, Glenn,” he said with a smile braver than he felt. “She’ll only be here a short time. Surely I can’t have too much protection.”

Fortunately, it seemed, Byleth did not wish to fight either.

“When the festivities end, my father and I will leave with the others,” she said.

Glenn scoffed, hand settling back to his side. “Fine, I guess.”

Dimitri sighed in relief. Something small nagged at the back of his mind, the pieces sliding into place with a _click_. The way she trailed Jeralt. The shoulder pat. Jeralt calling her “my” Byleth. Dimitri looked at her with wonder.

“Wait, your father? Jeralt the Bladebreaker is your father?”

Byleth nodded.

“That’s…quite impressive.”

She responded with a shrug, but Dimitri couldn’t help the smile that crept up his lips. That explained her position despite her youth. To have a father like Jeralt the Bladebreaker must have made her truly formidable in combat indeed. He almost wished he had a chance to spar with her, to see if she could teach him something new. Perhaps he could ask her sometime later.

“My friends, you’ve been far too hostile to such a beauty,” Sylvain said. Dimitri was honestly surprised he had contained himself for this long—or rather, that Ingrid had been able to hold him back. “Now then, Miss…what did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t.”

Dimitri could have sworn the air got colder. Sylvain, however, was undeterred. He smiled a little wider.

“I’m sure your name is as pretty as you are.”

“Sylvain!” Ingrid hissed, marching over to him. “I’m sorry, he’s not usually like this, he’s just—”

“Byleth,” she said.

“Miss Byleth,” Sylvain said, putting his arm around her shoulder. “His Highness is going to be preoccupied in a bit with combat training—how ‘bout I show you around Fhirdiad in the meantime?”

She took a deep breath and faced Sylvain. Almost too quickly to track, Byleth took hold of Sylvain’s wrist, turned her back to him, bent her knees, and pulled _hard_ —and Sylvain went flying over her shoulder. He landed on his back with a groan.

“Sylvain!” Ingrid gasped. Her concern warred with her amusement. She giggled as she asked, “Are you okay?”

“How did she do that?” Felix marveled aloud, blinking in surprise.

Glenn burst out laughing. “I might like her after all.”

Startled, Dimitri reassessed her yet again. Sylvain was tall and not exactly a pushover—perhaps Jeralt wasn’t exaggerating when he said she was the best. To pull off a maneuver like that, she had to be surprisingly strong.

“I go where the Prince goes,” Byleth said.

* * *

She did exactly so, and nothing more. Upon their arrival, Gustave’s thin eyebrows shot up, and Dimitri explained Byleth’s presence as he had to his friends. The aged knight merely nodded and smiled.

“A thoughtful gesture, to be certain,” he said.

Dimitri concurred. Glenn rolled his eyes.

During his training, Byleth stood to the side, back straight, eyes scanning, as she had when he spoke to her first. As though a threat would find them here, with a seasoned and loyal Knight like Gustave and someone as talented and young as Glenn protecting him. And he himself was not exactly unskilled either.

Only once, Gustave asked her if she’d like to join them.

“I see the look in your eyes, lass,” he called to her, his expression kindly. Dimitri’s back had been turned—he wasn’t sure _what_ Gustave could have seen on that blank face of hers. “You’re welcome to learn here.”

Byleth shook her head with more vigor than Dimitri had expected she could manage, a faint blush across her cheeks. “It is not my place, sir.”

And then she returned to her watch. Glenn elbowed Dimitri and sneered.

“As it suits you. The invitation is still there,” Gustave told her. She nodded, but did not look back at them.

Dimitri frowned. As the lesson continued, he wondered. When his training ended, and he got swept up in the festivities—the feasts, the singing, the dancing—he wondered. Byleth stood within sight, away from the noise, ever-vigilant, expression placid.

A tray of sweet buns went by, and her gaze honed in on them before she shook herself and resumed surveillance.

Had she eaten at all? Several hours had passed since Jeralt had bade her follow him, and while Dimitri and his friends and the revelers had been feasting and making merry, he had not seen Byleth eat.

Why were his friends so wary of her? Because she didn’t smile? Because she was different? Sure, she had thrown Sylvain, but that was his own fault, and it was pretty impressive. Just because she wasn’t outgoing or even friendly didn’t mean she was exempt from kindness. And her skill and strength was obvious, but as the child of someone with as much power and presence as Jeralt the Bladebreaker, likely she worked twice as hard to be seen as someone worthy.

Dimitri knew acutely what that was like.

He approached the servant with the tray of sweet buns and selected a light purple one. He hoped she liked Noa fruit—he chose it solely for the color of her eyes. Food in hand, he walked over to where Byleth stood.

“Hello,” he said, feeling suddenly shy.

She looked into his eyes. Quietly, she responded, “…hello.”

“I didn’t know if you had eaten, so I brought you this.” He raised the sweet bun up. “I…saw you looking at them. They’re quite good, if you’ve never tried them.”

Surprise lit Byleth’s face as she regarded the treat. A softness overtook her eyes, and to Dimitri’s absolute astonishment, she smiled. His face warmed as his heart skipped a few beats.

He hadn’t expected she could look so _cute_.

Without warning, the smile dropped from her face, and she pushed him to the side. Dimitri clutched the sweet bun as he fell, shock boiling into sadness and anger, and landed on the cold ground. If she didn’t want it, she could have just _said_ —

In the moonlight, he saw the glint of the dagger that had almost landed in his back had Byleth not pushed him out of harm’s way. His attacker growled in frustration, looking back at the crowd to find an exit.

It was then that Byleth struck.

Swift as wind, silent as a shadow, she landed a blow to his gut, to his chin—she spun and kicked, heel connecting with the man’s jaw, and he crumpled. She kicked the dagger from his hands, drew her blade, pointed it at his neck. The man groaned.

“Call the guards,” Byleth said calmly. Dimitri blinked, not immediately realizing her words were directed towards him. He nodded and scrambled to his feet.

* * *

The air of the morning following was complex.

King Lambert was overjoyed, singing praises of Jeralt, his daughter, his mercenaries. He made it clear he planned to hire Jeralt’s Mercenaries for every Holy Kingdom of Faerghus Founding Day festival—and perhaps even beyond that.

“Had I not extended the contract—what a dark thought indeed!” he said with a hearty laugh.

Glenn was rather put out. He could not claim he would have “done the same,” had he been at Dimitri’s side without admitting that he _hadn’t_ been at Dimitri’s side, and had instead been stuffing his face—nor was he willing to admit Byleth could outmatch him. He settled with, “she got there first,” which wasn’t wholly untrue, even if it was still embarrassing.

Dimitri himself was…confused. He was certainly grateful that Byleth had saved him. She had handily defeated an opponent larger and older than she was, and he was impressed. She had done what she had been asked—and hired—to do, and he admired her professionalism, especially coupled with her youth. Those things, he knew how to deal with.

He did not know how to deal with her smile, and the tightness in his chest when he thought of it.

As the merchants and travelers packed up for the journey home, Dimitri sought her out. With all of the excitement, he had not been able to properly thank her. When she saw him approach, she set down the heavy crate she had been carrying with an audible _thud_.

“Hello, Your Highness,” she said. She did not smile, and Dimitri was thankful—that she had greeted him first had stunned him into silence already. He was not sure what he would have done if she had smiled again.

“Hello, Byleth. Um, you can call me Dimitri, if you like.”

She nodded, but did not speak. For a moment, they stared at each other. Dimitri shifted his weight.

“Did you need something?” she asked. “We’re heading out soon.”

“Yes,” Dimitri said. “I mean, yes, I know you’re heading out soon, and yes, I needed something—I mean, I don’t _need_ anything, I just wanted to—”

He stopped. Byleth blinked several times, eyebrows furrowing. Dimitri cleared his throat, face heating with the question he was about to ask.

“May I take your hand?”

Byleth’s brow furrowed deeper, but palm down, she lifted her hand to him. Dimitri dropped to a single knee, and watched Byleth’s eyes widen. Lightly, he grasped her palm. It was rough and warm.

“On behalf of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus—and um, me—thank you for saving me.”

He pressed his lips to the back of her hand and looked up.

That softness was in her violet eyes again. _Like twilight_ , he thought.

Nearby laughter disturbed the moment like a ripple on water.

Byleth pulled her hand abruptly back.

“What was that for?!” she asked, cheeks red, the most emotion Dimitri had heard in her tone thus far. His face burned, too.

“It was—it’s a customary gesture!” Dimitri protested.

“Was it necessary to stare like that?”

“I’m sorry! I just wanted to thank you!”

“Just say so, then!”

“I did!” Dimitri covered his face and took a deep breath. It was a Prince’s duty to maintain a civil and cordial manner at all times. No matter how embarrassed he and his conversation partner were.

“I apologize if I made you uncomfortable. And thank you, again. Truly.”

She said nothing right away, her gaze on the floor. Then, she looked up. “You didn’t. You just…surprised me.”

Of all the things that had happened, _that_ was what surprised her?

“I meant to thank you, too,” she said quietly. A small smile spread across her lips. Dimitri’s heart stuttered again. “For the sweet bun. Even if I didn’t get to eat it.”

“Of—of course. I’m sure I could find you one for the road?”

She shook her head, smile widening. “Thank you all the same…Dimitri. I hope we come to Fhirdiad again soon.”

And with that, she turned, lifted the crate, and walked away.

Dimitri smiled despite himself.

“We’ll have to spar when you do!” he shouted after her. She actually laughed, the sound so joyful it made his chest blaze. Byleth shifted her weight to hold the crate with one hand and waved briefly to him.

Dimitri waved back.

He had definitely never seen anyone like her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! <3 I'm happy to be able to participate in Dimileth Week this year! I do plan to do all the prompts (even if they're a little late--but hopefully they won't be!)
> 
> If you liked this piece, please leave a comment! And if you haven't already, check out my in-progress mainfic, Lunar Haruspex. It's full of more Dimileth. ^_^
> 
> Thank you again, and happy Dimileth Week!


End file.
